The relationship between discriminability of scaling stimuli and assessed dimensional dominance was investigated in three studies. Results indicated that kindergarten children bring to the experimental situation a dimensional preference even when the values of all dimensions present are of equal and known discriminability. (GO)

STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO ESTABLISH DISCRIMINATORY RESPONSES TO PAIRS OF STIMULI WITHOUT ERROR RESPONSES TO THE UNREINFORCED (S-) STIMULUS. THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF 2 METHODS OF INTRODUCING S- (FADING AND CONSTANT) AND 2 RESPONSE CONTINGENCIES (DELAY AND NO DELAY) ON THE OCCURRENCE OF S- RESPONSES.…

Kindergarten children were trained to make same-different judgments of either 2 or 4 standard figures under either 2 or 4 transformations before being transferred to a novel set of figures. (Editor)

Results indicated the following: unitary stimuli were easier to encode; partitioned stimuli were easier to recode; recoding was much more difficult than encoding; extended training improved performance; second graders were slightly better at encoding and much better at recoding than were kindergarten children. (Author/DB)

A total of 630 boys and girls from kindergarten to second grade were asked to compare durations that differ in beginning times with those that differ in ending times. Possible sources of children's failure to integrate beginning and end points when comparing durations were discussed. (Author/CI)

Investigates to what extent discrimination learning through time delay of multistimulus, distinctive-feature prompts is a function of the inclusion and configuration of the S-prompt. Results of two experiments with children aged four and five indicate that most subjects did not learn the task assigned unless two distinctive-feature prompts were…

This study investigated the effects of two stimulus manipulations (spatial distinctness and number of dimensions) on the performance of 24 kindergartners and 24 fifth graders in (1) tasks requiring distributed attention and (2) tasks requiring selective attention. Results suggest that kindergartners attempt to use one processing mode (distributed…

Three studies explore the development of discrimination and memory for symmetry in preschoolers four to six years of age. Issues addressed include the young child's ability to discriminate and reproduce symmetry, and the effects of pattern orientation and complexity on the young child's symmetry discrimination and reproduction. Results indicate…

Four-, five-, and six-year-old children were used as subjects in this investigation. There were 192 experimental and 96 control children used, divided equally between the three age groups. The experimental children received a 1-minute pretest exposure procedure in which 1/4 of the children observed 4 two-dimensional stimuli (irregular pentagons),…

In order to examine the nature of dimensional processing in children, 20 kindergarten and 20 third grade Chinese-American children were asked to make similarity judgments for unidimensional sets of stimuli differing in color (hue), size, and shape, respectively. Age differences were generally confined to the color set. The judgments of the older…